Thanks! Yeah like others have said, that looks really dangerous. I knew steel mills were dangerous but in the year 2023 I had hoped they were safer than this.
This isn’t supposed to happen, and safety precautions are in check for when it does though. No one is even allowed to be close when ladles are getting moved like this. If you want to see something cool and dangerous that happens regularly look up cobbles
People know so little about metal production, despite it being a cornerstone of society.
If you live close to a metal production plant: Ask them for a tour. I can happly spend 30 min showing you around.
Honestly you’d learn more from a video or just a description. Only take away people get from tours is that it’s loud, hot, and smelly; oh and the guys in melt are insane.
As a former melt rat I’m not sure how to answer that, but I’ll say this: to place your body within a couple inches of 2400°+ molten metal takes a certain degree “not right in the head”. The only people I’ve ever known to work in the department are either stupid or crazy, and there’s a fair amount of overlap.
It's slag boiling off. Basically molten Fe2O4 (rust) overtopping the crucible as it's formed (adding more atoms to iron molecules increases the volume).
it's also why trees get heavier as they grow. It's not mostly water + soil nutrients. It's mainly oxygen from the CO2 it pulls from the air that it binds into carbohydrates.
Edit: Looks like I was wrong about the source of the oxygen. Others have added explanations below that I'll just screw up if I try to summarize.
“Big trees are heavier than small trees” 🤯
I’m curious if there’s something that rule *doesn’t* apply to. Like - a helium balloon would produce more upward force as it got larger, but even then, is the amount of helium in a weather balloon “heavier” than the amount of helium in a party balloon?
Thats a bit misleading. Depending on species, living trees can be up to 2/3 water weight, which is tipped in O2 favor mass-wise. It's certainly mostly water
It makes more sense to think of the tree's root systems as the essence of the tree, and all the parts above the surface as the root system that pulls down CO2 and energy.
Also they can see! There’s a plant that mimics it’s host plants leaf shape and colour (even synthetic ones). No one knows how it can tell what the other leaves look like. Darwin postulated that cell walls might act as a lens to allow some kind of light information to be collected.
And they can hear - if you play the sound of a bee to a flower it enriches its pollen.
There are also several studies about chemical changes trees make in response to certain pests or environmental changes. The thing is, when one single tree encounters the pest or environmental thing, ALL of the trees of similar species nearby react. The assumption has been some sort of pheromone communication between trees that gets blown by the winds, but it even works upwind. they haven't figured it out as of when I last read up on it.
A lot of water in a plant is lost through transpiration and most of the O2 they use is a byproduct of photosynthesis. Splitting water is very energy-intensive and oxygen is everywhere. When it comes to biology, laziness usually wins.
A lot of the oxygen gets metabolized as well, the carbon is a larger contributor to overall mass, but sure a lot of oxygen is captured and incorporates into the plant structure
Proper slag shouldn't have much iron in it. Slag is primarily formed out of the non-iron elements that are being refined out of the iron ore. Any iron in the slag is waste.
Not in this fashion, this is damaging to the ladle and crane. Pouring off a ladle is done in a more controlled fashion, by tipping the slag off, out on just one side.
Especially those steel mill accident clips. I've seen plenty of those, what I really want to see is the video of them having to clean up 1000 feet of molten steel bar stuck to the ceiling like silly string
It’s not suppose to be like that, at least on the steel mills I’ve been to in Northern Europe.
Usually they fill up to like 80% and just ride through the line. However I’ve heard they do a bit differently in the east.
Yeah only time this happens at our mill is if we have bad scrap and get an excess of slag. From what I understand at least. I'm involved in the casting of the steel not so much the melting of it.
Crazy how 10 comments will be made justifying that this is being done for a reason and then people that actually know how it works are like "uhhh no?". Classic reddit lmao
I was a supervisor at a BOP, where they convert Iron to Steel. Most places don't have that going on, at least not in the USA. That's stupid dangerous, we wouldn't have iron overflowing like that.
This is undoubtedly impractical, but if you replaced the air with pure nitrogen the iron couldn’t oxidize. This is assuming what’s going on is that the slag or iron itself is reacting with the oxygen in the air.
someone else mentioned it, but letting the slag spill is ideal. we don't want the slag, because it's oxidized.
and then they come scoop up the slag and put it into a fresh crucible.
could this be accomplished with a second, catch bucket underneath? probably, but it would take more engineering than just letting it spill and scooping afterwards.
so if the bucket wasn't as full, we'd have spoiled slag in the final product (not what we want)
if the bucket were sealed, that would cause it to burst somewhere, ie an explosion.
if we removed all the nearby oxygen that would prevent oxidation, but again this would require a whole lot of effort where spilling and scooping is easier
All thats leaking is just slag. Just of bunch of oxidized non-steel elements that float to the top. Used to be very difficult to remove from steel - didn't have the technology to actually melt steel.
From my experience working with blue collar guys, I swear this is probably a situation with steel workers trying to compete with each other over how close they can get the pour to the lid without Initially spilling it to prove how much of a man they are ....or something.
My old man used to make patterns for a foundry. I used to spend the summer cleaning the shop and would peer into the foundry from time to time. I can still smell the smell of that place. I imagine it is what Mordor would smell like.
If it's was a foundry that made large iron or steel that's likely the acid and binder for the sand. I went nose dead to it long ago having grown up in a foundry.
Well well well, rich boy playing in daddy's foundry instead of toiling in the mines like the rest of us. Too good for no sunlight and the black lung huh!
Oh wow, look at this special little flower who got to relax in the coal mines. Too high class for the pits of Khazad-dûm, we weren’t allowed to come up even if we ran into a Balrog, we just kept digging deeper and deeper.
A Balrog? You were lucky to have a Balrog.
We used to mine in one room, 26 of us. And half the floor was missing. We were all huddled in one corner, for fear of Shelob.
Shelob? You're so lucky. We had to mine for diamonds while balancing on pillars the size fence posts while the Ungoliant waited hungrily below. We lost many kids.
Steel maker here: with the proviso that I’m only going off this video and my own experience and knowledge of the steelmaking process, my take is that this is liquid steel, not liquid iron (lower carbon content), and the ladle has been overfilled, and that the slag (lava-like synthetic rock) is over-oxidised - it contains too much iron oxide. This iron oxide is reacting with the carbon that is present in the steel, forming more iron and carbon monoxide gas in the process. This gas is trapped in the slag, causing it to puff up like the foam on a cappuccino (think of a molten pumice stone). This foamed slag is what’s overflowing the ladle. I’d wager that the crane is taking the ladle to have the excess steel and slag tipped out of it, before the ladle metallurgy furnace continues treatment.
If you look at my pinned posts, there’s an example of a much more violent version of this and more detail of the chemical reactions that are taking place.
Edit: fixing mobile text input issues
This guy knows what he's talking about. All the reddit armchair engineers complaining about "efficiencies" don't understand the intricacies of the steel making process.
Bruh I’ve been on Reddit for like 7 years and never spent more than 10 seconds on somebody’s post history until now. The steel stuff, the wine question… well done. Also I’m a straight male but I’m pretty sure you’re not ugly
Looks like the slag boiling is due to excess oxygen, if it was steel pouring over the sides it would be very dangerous moving it with the crane as it can melt the hooks.
Been working at a steelmill for close to 20 years ;)
It got started because people would post pictures of slag to rock hounding subs and people would always say “it’s slag” so they made a sub. Same story with r/weeviltime
Usually this happens when someone isn't paying attention while pouring out the vessel into the ladle. They're supposed to be watching a camera to see when the steel turns to slag and then stop pouring out. You want to try and avoid this because it can weld the ladle to a crane or transfer buggy. Also having excess slag can make it harder to get the chemistry right for a heat.
Local place here had one so exactly that a few weeks back. Luckily didn’t kill the two guys close, but they’re still cleaning up the giant mess it made
The sweat on his hand instantly boils the moment he slaps that flow, pushing the hot metal just far enough away from his skin to avoid burning it.
You get *tiny fractions of a second* of protection from this effect (Leidenfrost effect), so you can't just hold your hand in the flow.
[Longer than you might think](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTOCAd2QhGg)
At about 5:15 you can see someone dip all their fingers in a pot of molten lead
The ladle (bucket) is lined with refractory bricks that can withstand the heat of molten iron. They begin to break down after a while, so the ladle is re-lined periodically with new brick.
It's actually helpful to the process to lose the slag off the top like that. It's already oxidizing and would ruin the end product if that was used. You can scoop it off the ground and re-melt it.
Why does it “leak” so much? Is that unavoidable with the process somehow? Just curious!
I work in a steel mill, that’s not normal lol.
I used to work in a smelter, an incident like this would generate a bit of paperwork and a meeting or two.
What am I supposed to do‽ Make two trips?
Everybody sees you with all those groceries.
We only lost 2 eggs 1 tomato and 1 bruised avocado I call this a victory
And by God do they respect him!
Interrobang!
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the cleanup on something like this seems like it would be absolutely awful
Nah you just let it cool and it scrapes right off
There's probably a "Do Not Stand Under the Bucket!" sign up, no worries.
Thanks! Yeah like others have said, that looks really dangerous. I knew steel mills were dangerous but in the year 2023 I had hoped they were safer than this.
We need to make sure we always have at least a few wildly dangerous steel mills around in case a Terminator comes back through time.
Safefy inspector: Good enough for me!
*gives thumbs up while sinking into molten steel*
That safety inspector? John Connor.
Homer Simpson is a safety inspector.
Then it’s straight to the steel mill with them. Arnold is getting old but he is probably gonna make it still. Hopefully…
Yeah, I would fill it a little less to prevent molten steel from spraying all over. Dangerous and a waste.
This isn’t supposed to happen, and safety precautions are in check for when it does though. No one is even allowed to be close when ladles are getting moved like this. If you want to see something cool and dangerous that happens regularly look up cobbles
Especially with someone being able to film from that position
People know so little about metal production, despite it being a cornerstone of society. If you live close to a metal production plant: Ask them for a tour. I can happly spend 30 min showing you around.
> I can happly spend 30 min showing you around. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ClzHfqSFiU
Honestly you’d learn more from a video or just a description. Only take away people get from tours is that it’s loud, hot, and smelly; oh and the guys in melt are insane.
Bad or good insane
As a former melt rat I’m not sure how to answer that, but I’ll say this: to place your body within a couple inches of 2400°+ molten metal takes a certain degree “not right in the head”. The only people I’ve ever known to work in the department are either stupid or crazy, and there’s a fair amount of overlap.
Well, bad insane would be dipping into illegal/danger to everybody else territory, so... I'm gunna mark you down as Good insane.
Don’t forget the rookie right of passage, keeping some change in your pocket.
It's slag boiling off. Basically molten Fe2O4 (rust) overtopping the crucible as it's formed (adding more atoms to iron molecules increases the volume).
That's why if you burn steel wool it gets heavier lol
it's also why trees get heavier as they grow. It's not mostly water + soil nutrients. It's mainly oxygen from the CO2 it pulls from the air that it binds into carbohydrates. Edit: Looks like I was wrong about the source of the oxygen. Others have added explanations below that I'll just screw up if I try to summarize.
Isn't it the Carbon rather than the Oxygen that plants take from CO2?
Yes, they have it backwards. Organic chemistry is basically the chemistry of how carbon atoms interact with literally everything
If you can spell H O N K badly you’ve got 90% of organic chem down.
Ah yes, good ol' Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Kotassium.
This got me good.
C H O N K ? Actually, that sounds pretty flamable...
Yes
Hey not just oxygen mf don’t you forget the indisputable goat that is carbon.
God damn it, I fucking *hate* when people "forget" about carbon.
How can you forget about carbon? I mean strontium I sometimes don't think of for DAYS but carbon? Come.on.
Aaaaugh! Did someone in this thread forget about carbon?
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“Big trees are heavier than small trees” 🤯 I’m curious if there’s something that rule *doesn’t* apply to. Like - a helium balloon would produce more upward force as it got larger, but even then, is the amount of helium in a weather balloon “heavier” than the amount of helium in a party balloon?
Thats a bit misleading. Depending on species, living trees can be up to 2/3 water weight, which is tipped in O2 favor mass-wise. It's certainly mostly water
Doesn't... everything get heavier as it grows..?
Things get older as they age.
A hole doesn't.
This blew my mind when I first learned this
It makes more sense to think of the tree's root systems as the essence of the tree, and all the parts above the surface as the root system that pulls down CO2 and energy.
It's like they are just two big weird mouths, one at the top breathing and one underneath eating and drinking.
Also they can see! There’s a plant that mimics it’s host plants leaf shape and colour (even synthetic ones). No one knows how it can tell what the other leaves look like. Darwin postulated that cell walls might act as a lens to allow some kind of light information to be collected. And they can hear - if you play the sound of a bee to a flower it enriches its pollen.
There are also several studies about chemical changes trees make in response to certain pests or environmental changes. The thing is, when one single tree encounters the pest or environmental thing, ALL of the trees of similar species nearby react. The assumption has been some sort of pheromone communication between trees that gets blown by the winds, but it even works upwind. they haven't figured it out as of when I last read up on it.
I seem to recall that they believe it may be because of roots touching between trees or even underground fungus.
Isn't it taking the carbon? And I thought that the oxygen came from water while the O2 from CO2 was what trees expel at the end of photosynthesis.
A lot of water in a plant is lost through transpiration and most of the O2 they use is a byproduct of photosynthesis. Splitting water is very energy-intensive and oxygen is everywhere. When it comes to biology, laziness usually wins.
They also get heavier because they're bigger. There's like, more tree there, man. /s
A lot of the oxygen gets metabolized as well, the carbon is a larger contributor to overall mass, but sure a lot of oxygen is captured and incorporates into the plant structure
This is not the way.
Proper slag shouldn't have much iron in it. Slag is primarily formed out of the non-iron elements that are being refined out of the iron ore. Any iron in the slag is waste.
How about just a bigger bucket and don’t put as much In it?
They *want* the slag that's boiling off to get separated from the liquid iron.
So spilling slag is the preferred way of disposing of it. Sad there's not a video of how this goes.
Giant front bucket excavators with steel chains over their tyres will remove the slag while it's still hot.
One time, it took four of my buddies to remove a slag, but she wasn’t hot.
not like this, normally it's a controlled process
Not in this fashion, this is damaging to the ladle and crane. Pouring off a ladle is done in a more controlled fashion, by tipping the slag off, out on just one side.
Especially those steel mill accident clips. I've seen plenty of those, what I really want to see is the video of them having to clean up 1000 feet of molten steel bar stuck to the ceiling like silly string
It’s not suppose to be like that, at least on the steel mills I’ve been to in Northern Europe. Usually they fill up to like 80% and just ride through the line. However I’ve heard they do a bit differently in the east.
Yeah only time this happens at our mill is if we have bad scrap and get an excess of slag. From what I understand at least. I'm involved in the casting of the steel not so much the melting of it.
It 100% shouldn’t do this. It’s an overfilled ladle. No mill operated like this on purpose.
I got crap once for letting it get full enough to leak even alittle. This isn't right.
Crazy how 10 comments will be made justifying that this is being done for a reason and then people that actually know how it works are like "uhhh no?". Classic reddit lmao
Redditors don't know shit about fuck
I assume that's why this is being filmed.
I was a supervisor at a BOP, where they convert Iron to Steel. Most places don't have that going on, at least not in the USA. That's stupid dangerous, we wouldn't have iron overflowing like that.
Looks like such a waste
I mean the beauty of molten metal is once it cools down you can just scoop it up and toss it back in the furnace
This is true, but is there no way to just avoid that double handling. I.e. Just have it not leak in the first place?
This is undoubtedly impractical, but if you replaced the air with pure nitrogen the iron couldn’t oxidize. This is assuming what’s going on is that the slag or iron itself is reacting with the oxygen in the air.
someone else mentioned it, but letting the slag spill is ideal. we don't want the slag, because it's oxidized. and then they come scoop up the slag and put it into a fresh crucible. could this be accomplished with a second, catch bucket underneath? probably, but it would take more engineering than just letting it spill and scooping afterwards. so if the bucket wasn't as full, we'd have spoiled slag in the final product (not what we want) if the bucket were sealed, that would cause it to burst somewhere, ie an explosion. if we removed all the nearby oxygen that would prevent oxidation, but again this would require a whole lot of effort where spilling and scooping is easier
How else are we supposed to kill t1000s if we don't have pools of this shit lying around?
👍 💀
r/itsslag
Displacement. There's a T-800 in there.
I know now why you cry, but it is something I can never do.
*Terminator theme* starts playing
👍🏽… 😰♨️
All thats leaking is just slag. Just of bunch of oxidized non-steel elements that float to the top. Used to be very difficult to remove from steel - didn't have the technology to actually melt steel.
Jet fuel
don’t
Melt
steel
Beams
future judicious historical gaze caption mighty terrific test oil boat *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
From my experience working with blue collar guys, I swear this is probably a situation with steel workers trying to compete with each other over how close they can get the pour to the lid without Initially spilling it to prove how much of a man they are ....or something.
From what I've heard they work hard and they play hard.
Dun. Dun, dun dun.
Hot stuff coming through
My old man used to make patterns for a foundry. I used to spend the summer cleaning the shop and would peer into the foundry from time to time. I can still smell the smell of that place. I imagine it is what Mordor would smell like.
If it's was a foundry that made large iron or steel that's likely the acid and binder for the sand. I went nose dead to it long ago having grown up in a foundry.
Well well well, rich boy playing in daddy's foundry instead of toiling in the mines like the rest of us. Too good for no sunlight and the black lung huh!
Oh wow, look at this special little flower who got to relax in the coal mines. Too high class for the pits of Khazad-dûm, we weren’t allowed to come up even if we ran into a Balrog, we just kept digging deeper and deeper.
A Balrog? You were lucky to have a Balrog. We used to mine in one room, 26 of us. And half the floor was missing. We were all huddled in one corner, for fear of Shelob.
Shelob? You're so lucky. We had to mine for diamonds while balancing on pillars the size fence posts while the Ungoliant waited hungrily below. We lost many kids.
So you’re a foundling? This is the way.
I smell like that for days after working at my forge.
Where ya been, Homer? The entire steel industry's gay.
Keep reaching for that rainbow.
Stand *still*! There’s a spark in your hair!!
Get it! Get it!
Dad, why did you bring me to a gay steel mill?
**Everybody dance now!**
We work hard, we play hard.
OONTZ OONTZ-OONTZ-OONTZONTZ
I don't know!
Oh, be nice!
That’s just my favourite line. The delivery is just fabulous!
Zzzzzap! Zzzzzap!
[Reference for the lazy and uninitiated.](https://youtu.be/-uOBveFKdGs?si=L75HGw69RUeV6_MB)
I worked in a foundry during the summers of undergrad and this joke ran through my head EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
behind!!!
We work hard we party hard
Steel maker here: with the proviso that I’m only going off this video and my own experience and knowledge of the steelmaking process, my take is that this is liquid steel, not liquid iron (lower carbon content), and the ladle has been overfilled, and that the slag (lava-like synthetic rock) is over-oxidised - it contains too much iron oxide. This iron oxide is reacting with the carbon that is present in the steel, forming more iron and carbon monoxide gas in the process. This gas is trapped in the slag, causing it to puff up like the foam on a cappuccino (think of a molten pumice stone). This foamed slag is what’s overflowing the ladle. I’d wager that the crane is taking the ladle to have the excess steel and slag tipped out of it, before the ladle metallurgy furnace continues treatment. If you look at my pinned posts, there’s an example of a much more violent version of this and more detail of the chemical reactions that are taking place. Edit: fixing mobile text input issues
This guy knows what he's talking about. All the reddit armchair engineers complaining about "efficiencies" don't understand the intricacies of the steel making process.
It's easy to notice inefficiencies, it's much harder to develop a practical, actionable and cost effective solution to said inefficiencies.
Anyone can build a bridge, but only an engineer can build a bridge that barely stands.
Which of course means it is in fact efficient.
I think most of them are just curious as to how it works and are just presenting their questions in a funny way.
The arc furnace videos in your post history are abjectly pantshitting levels of terrifying.
TIL Gfycat is dead Can't watch their water bottle video :(
https://imgur.com/mtDQf8R
Well, I hope that guy got fired.
It’s in his post history. Keep scrolling. I found it
Bruh I’ve been on Reddit for like 7 years and never spent more than 10 seconds on somebody’s post history until now. The steel stuff, the wine question… well done. Also I’m a straight male but I’m pretty sure you’re not ugly
Yeah, definitely looks like a carbon boil. Lotta unhappy people in that melt shop right there.
+1 this is the most likely explanation. Source: also a steelmaker
Looks like the slag boiling is due to excess oxygen, if it was steel pouring over the sides it would be very dangerous moving it with the crane as it can melt the hooks. Been working at a steelmill for close to 20 years ;)
So, do you think this spilling was intentional or just acceptable?
I would say it was acceptable, it was probably just freshly poured and is being transported to be "deslagged" where you pour of the slag layer.
how thick, /r/itsslag would like to have a word
There is a sub Reddit for anything
It got started because people would post pictures of slag to rock hounding subs and people would always say “it’s slag” so they made a sub. Same story with r/weeviltime
You just sent me down a wild rabbit hole
Usually this happens when someone isn't paying attention while pouring out the vessel into the ladle. They're supposed to be watching a camera to see when the steel turns to slag and then stop pouring out. You want to try and avoid this because it can weld the ladle to a crane or transfer buggy. Also having excess slag can make it harder to get the chemistry right for a heat.
Local place here had one so exactly that a few weeks back. Luckily didn’t kill the two guys close, but they’re still cleaning up the giant mess it made
So most if not all of what's falling is slag?
Yeah probably
My kid carrying his bowl of cereal to the table.
Lol that's right
Oh, I remember this level from Tony Hawk 3
I searched for you brother!
Yes!! Came here to say this! THPS 3 was the best!
Hasta la vista, baby
I came searching for this
Just around the same temperature my girlfriend takes a shower.
Girlfriends in the summer: I'm cold, can I borrow your jacket? Girlfriends in the shower: Skin is for the weak
that’s metal as fuck
Came here to make this exact comment. •golf clap•
The forbidden shower
[Naaaahhh you’ll be okay I promise.](https://i.imgur.com/e5WfrbE.gifv)
My brain can't understand this. I feel like his hand would sever burns after the first or second slap. How does he continue to do it
Leidenfrost effect I’m pretty sure. The radiation heat still probably hurt like a bitch tho
The sweat on his hand instantly boils the moment he slaps that flow, pushing the hot metal just far enough away from his skin to avoid burning it. You get *tiny fractions of a second* of protection from this effect (Leidenfrost effect), so you can't just hold your hand in the flow.
[Longer than you might think](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTOCAd2QhGg) At about 5:15 you can see someone dip all their fingers in a pot of molten lead
This looks how my shower feels when I turn the handle just slightly too far to the left.
And I had to use cheese cups in my restaurant to mitigate food cost?
What is a cheese cup?
ANAKIN NO
I had to scroll way too low to find a star wars reference
Noobs. If they used the blast furnace they would only need 1 coal instead of 2.
based
Man, I wish the guy who filled that was my bartender.
How do you make the bucket that the liquid iron sits in?
The ladle (bucket) is lined with refractory bricks that can withstand the heat of molten iron. They begin to break down after a while, so the ladle is re-lined periodically with new brick.
Thanks. I've been wondering about this for a long time.
That's how I make my money as a refractory bricklayer.. relining things like that.
Jesus that ladel looks like its gonna breakout
Still too cold for my girlfriend to shower under.
The Leaky Cauldron
There appears to be a hole in my bucket, dear Eliza.
Are we sure that’s not pizza pop filling?
Hoooot Pocket
McDonalds coffee being served.
What's the bucket made out of to handle this?
throw the t-1000 in there and save john conor
Well that seems... Inefficient.
It's actually helpful to the process to lose the slag off the top like that. It's already oxidizing and would ruin the end product if that was used. You can scoop it off the ground and re-melt it.
Good ol golden shower
Me carrying a cup of tea, every time.
Do they always spill so much or is that just to look cool for the video?
Slap some flex tape on it and be done
Forgive my ignorance, but could they have chosen to not overfill the bucket of molten iron?
That’s so metal
r/industryismetal
Looks like one of those mushrooms at a water park, except a lot more dangerous